Mr. Fuddlesticks, the
pseudonymous creator of YouTube cartoons mocking the Renton,
Washington, police department, no longer faces a "cyberstalking"
investigation. In early August,
KOMO KIRO, the CBS
affiliate in Seattle,
reported
that King County Superior Court Judge James Cayce had approved
a search warrant demanding information about Mr. Fuddlesticks
from Google, which owns YouTube. After a local attorney challenged
the warrant on First Amendment grounds, Cayce scheduled a hearing
on the matter, imposing a
stay in the
meantime. Suddenly the Renton police
lost interest
in the warrant, saying "there has been no relevant information that
we have uncovered to date on the cyberstalking case to further a
criminal investigation."